Extra Points: For Bulldogs, just the two of them works

Thursday

Sep 12, 2013 at 12:01 AMSep 12, 2013 at 1:06 AM

Eastern Guilford encouraged by hot start

Times-News

Most of the offensive plays Williams High School ran last week came in a spread option attack, with quarterback Christian Miles deciding on a handoff to Jamieon Harvey, keeping it himself or a pitch to Tereak McCray.

But mostly, McCray ran as a decoy.

Harvey and Miles combined for 291 yards on 51 carries against Cummings High School. The Bulldogs ran 53 plays, with McCray carrying once and hauling in a 79-yard touchdown pass from Miles.

Coach David Green admitted he would have liked to have seen a few more pitches to McCray. But given the result and the nature of the option offense, he joked that he can’t argue with the results.

“(Christian) did a great job,” Green said. “There were a couple times that we might have liked to have gotten to the pitch faze, but you know, I’m not out there making that read under fire either. It’s a lot easier to make that read standing on the sidelines.”

â–Ş JUSTICE IS SERVED: Eastern Guilford quarterback Heith Justice completed just one pass in his teamÂ’s victory against Eastern Randolph. His legs did more talking.

Justice ran 11 times for 65 yards, including a shifty 30-yard touchdown run after a fake handoff. A few jukes later, he was in the end zone.

“Heith can run well,” said Eastern Guilford coach David Robertson. “He’s tough, so he’s kind of a hard guy to bring down.”

But Robertson also expressed the need for Justice to complete more than just one pass.

“We do have to throw the ball better to beat the teams down the road we need to beat,” he said. “I think we’re close to making those plays. But he’s got to be a good football player for us to win.”

â–Ş A DIFFERENT START: Eastern Guilford is 3-0, so itÂ’s a drastic change after losing four of its first five games last season.

“It’s something different around here, having a good start, getting a good streak going,” Justice said after the Wildcats’ 21-0 victory against Eastern Randolph.

Robertson, in his first season at the school, didn’t experience the team’s 2-9 record last year, but he likes what he’s seeing so far.

“For our kids, it’s foreign to them, but I’ve been fortunate to win a lot of games myself,” he said. “One of the reasons I came here is to get these guys believing and doing something special here that they can believe they can win. I think we’ve got past that point, now we’ve got to play a little better at times to beat the teams that we’ve got to beat later on in our schedule.”

â–Ş EAGLESÂ’ SAUNDERS TO MISS GAME: Eastern Alamance defensive end Dadrian Saunders wonÂ’t play Friday night against McMichael when the Eagles open their Mid-State 3-A Conference schedule after an injury in last weekÂ’s game at Southern Alamance.

Saunders, a senior, suffered a severe stinger and a concussion, coach John Kirby said. It occurred when he absorbed a block on the game’s fourth play from scrimmage.

Saunders was taken off the field on a stretcher.

Kirby said Saunders has returned to school and he could be back in action next week if his recovery stays on the expected course.

Saunders led the Eagles in tackles through the first two games of the season.

â–Ş PANCAKE BLOCKERS: Southern Alamance quarterback Johnathan Lloyd threw for 317 yards on 21-for-26 passing against Eastern Alamance. He said his offensive linemen deserve much of the credit.

He said they deserve a pancake meal for their efforts.

Lloyd completed 16 of 19 first-half passes, with one of the incompletions a dropped pass.

“When we’re clicking like that, we’re going to be tough,” Lloyd said. “We throw it a lot, so we have to be good at it.”

â–Ş PRESSURE COOKER: Eastern Alamance had to deal with a heavy pass rush applied at times by Southern Alamance, particularly in the second half.

“We knew they were scary,” Southern Alamance coach Andrew Carrouth said. “The way to deal with it was to bring pressure.”

It was a look that the Eagles never totally figured out, though they struck for some big plays along the way.

“They started bringing the house and you have to hope you can make them pay,” Kirby said.

â–Ş LESSONS TO LEARN: Eastern AlamanceÂ’s first loss apparently came as a surprise to the Eagles, who stumbled 54-40 at Southern Alamance.

“We’ll go back and realize maybe we’re not as good as we think we are,” Kirby said.

â–Ş COMING OF AGE: Cummings coach Steve Johnson has seen the talent in junior receiver Quae Pinnix. That talent hadnÂ’t necessarily materialized into a full performance.

Until last week.

Pinnix caught seven passes for 161 yards — which included a rumbling 51-yard catch-and-run to swing momentum at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

“I thought Quae Pinnix grew up a lot (Friday) night, as a receiver,” Johnson said of the 6-foot-3, 190-pounder. “He did some things that he hasn’t done. We’ve been telling him he had it in him to get it done, but he hadn’t been doing it that way.”

When asked if the yardage total was a career high, Pinnix flashed a coy smile and said it was. Then he humbled himself.

“Our running backs (Desmond Satterfield and Vernon Williams) were running the ball really well. They opened it up for me, actually,” Pinnix said. “(Quarterback Tevin Smith) was doing a good job getting the ball to me.”

â–Ş FIX A FEW THINGS: Western Alamance had eight penalties for 60 yards Friday night against Graham, something coach Jeff Snuffer wasnÂ’t happy about. They were also called for multiple unsportsmanlike penalties in the game, including a late hit on Graham quarterback Jamie Newman.

“We had uncharacteristic penalties and we had some ridiculous things that we did so we need to fix that,” Snuffer said.

There are some things he’d rather not change.

Western Alamance has started 3-0 for the third straight year and extended its dominance against Graham. The Warriors have won 11 straight against Graham, with eight of the 11 coming with margins of 10 points or more.

â–Ş IN THEIR DEFENSE: Eastern Randolph coach Seth Baxter said his team was a couple of big plays away from holding off Eastern Guilford. All three of Eastern GuilfordÂ’s scoring plays were 30 yards or longer.

“Defensively, 21 points, I wish it had been less than that,” he said. “But other than three or four big plays, I thought, at times, we played pretty well.”

The Wildcats lost top defensive lineman Josh Randolph to a knee injury in the opening minutes of the third quarter. From there, Baxter said, lack of composure became an issue.

“We lost Randolph, who’s one of the best defensive players around,” he said. “The biggest thing for me is our kids lost their emotions a little bit at the end. It’s a physical and mental game, and we lost that mental part a little there at the end.”